Yan put his head back against the wall behind him and closed his eyes. Outside, in the arena, he could hear the fighting. The smashing of bones, the splattering of blood and the sound of crackling fire. He knew his teacher, Natalai, was out there. Chosen to fight… Forced to fight. Here in the Drytreck Arena, men fought men and women fought women. For that, Yan was glad. He didn’t want to fight Natalai, not only because she was his mentor, but because none of them stood a chance against her.

Despite the gender specific matchups, Yan and the people of Ellmoore were new to the arena and they had a custom to weed out the weak. Your first few fights weren’t against people, but instead against monsters taken straight from the endless sands of Sabbia. If you couldn’t beat the monsters, you were dead. If you were victorious, you were moved on to the next phase. Combat against one of Drytreck’s gladiators.

Yan and the others weren’t told when they would be fighting, but he hadn’t fought yet so he assumed he would be next. A smart assumption as one of the Drytreck Arena guards grabbed him by the arm and threw him near a metal gate. Peering through it, Yan could see the aftermath of Natalai’s victory. Three dead beasts laid scattered around the arena as other Drytreck guards put out flames on the ground. Yan waited patiently as the guards cleaned up the remains then the gate in front of him opened. He walked out into the arena slowly… The crowd was getting restless. Yan was surprised how many people showed up.

The people of Ellmoore weren’t told much about Sabbia. A Kingdom was just North of where the arena was located, but rumor was that the Queen who ruled there had no idea these gladiator matches were being held in her own Kingdom. Sabbia was vast, so it’s possible the arena went under the radar, but the other rumor going around was that the Queen of Sabbia was an undead monster and probably would approve of what was happening here instead of trying to shut it down.

These were issues Yan couldn’t concern himself with as he stood in the middle of the arena awaiting his opponent. Finally, a gate opened. Yan could see two guards struggling to hold back a very large scorpion monster. The scorpion threw them aside and rushed out into the open as the guards closed the gate. Yan was only given some pieces of armor that barely covered his body to defend himself. There were weapons all over the arena to use, but he would have to find them if he wanted to use them.

As the scorpion moved side to side, dangerously close to the crowd in attendance, Yan panicked and stuck his hands in the sand trying to find one of the aforementioned weapons. Before he could find one, the scorpion became aware of his presence. As if the beast knew why it was there, it pursued Yan with a killer instinct. Its large pointy tail came crashing down just in front of Yan and he managed to roll out of harm’s way. He felt something against his back as he rolled and noticed a spear on the ground. Luckily, Natalai had trained him in all matters of weapons.

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Stomping the ground to force the spear up into his hands in one motion, Yan drove the spear into the scorpion's mouth. Even the scorpion was taken by surprise as the crowd gasped. Its tail continued to try to hit Yan, but he dodged each attack with ease. Finally, he steadied his feet in the sand and used all his might to push forward driving the spear in deeper. A horrifying screech exited the scorpion as did its last breath. Pure silence filled the arena. No one thought it would be over this fast and no one thought Yan would be the victor.

Once the silence broke - the crowd cheered for Yan.

Yan nodded and dropped the spear then headed for his gate to return, but it wasn’t his gate that opened. It was the gate the scorpion came from. Yan realized in this moment he had become unlucky.

Since arriving in Drytreck Arena, the other prisoners as well as the other gladiators had spoken of a man. The Drytreck Arena’s Champion… Azai. If someone impressed Azai, he wanted to meet them… and fight them. Supposedly he wasn’t a very patient man and Yan was about to learn that firsthand. Unfortunately for Yan that men only fought men and women only fought women as he was sure Azai would pick Natalai to fight. A fight that Natalai would surely win but given what they had heard of Azai so far, Yan didn’t like his chances.

Azai was… Not what you would expect from a gladiator champion. He was tall, not very muscular at all and looked more like a model than a fighter. Men and women alike adored him, and he presented himself in a way that was very elegant and debonair. However, it would be a mistake to underestimate him in the arena. The armor they gave Azai was leather and covered most of his body and his sword was a katana that they say he took from the dead hands of the first man he killed in Drytreck Arena.

Yan found himself without a choice and returned to the center of the sand where Azai approached him. Azai didn’t say a word and Yan chose to do the same. If he was going to earn his place in the Drytreck Arena, he would need to prove he wasn’t afraid of Azai. Even if he lost this fight, if he somehow managed to keep his life it would force the other prisoners and guards to respect him.

Yan threw the first punch, but every martial arts attack he learned from Natalai was easily dodged by Azai with very little effort. Yan ran to the scorpion’s corpse that still littered the battlefield and removed the spear, once again throwing every attack he knew at Azai, but the Drytreck Arena’s champion continued to nonchalantly avoid each strike. Yan was breathing heavy, the heat of the midday sun beating on him, and the sand made it hard to focus. He readied himself for another spear strike and jumped at Azai with everything he had…

Azai finally removed his katana from its sheath and swatted the spear out of Yan’s hands.. When Yan once again touched the ground, he stumbled and fell to his knees. Azai lifted his katana up in the air with one hand. When Yan looked up at him, he saw the sun shine around Azai and reflect off the steel of the blade above him. Despite the cheering of the crowd, Yan only thought of how he let his teacher down.

“I thought you were worthy,” said Azai. “I was wrong.”

And with that, Azai brought down his blade.